Archive for May, 2006
The oatmeal cookies…
Are DELICIOUS!!! I got the recipe from:
The recipe calls for pecans, which I knew would NOT go over well with my crew. (I'm not a huge pecan fan myself.) So I tried to substitute more oats for the pecans. I think I overdid it LOL. The cookies are still REALLY good, but just too oat-y. Also, the recipe says to put them on by the scant tablespoonful. Get out your tablespoon and actually measure - don't just get out big spoons and glop them on there. There is a lot of fat in the recipe (coconut oil and butter, so they are good fats), and the cookies spread out while they cook. So scant is necessary!
It would be very easy to substitute chocolate chips (or sugar-free if you're super concerned about the carbs) for the pecans. I may try that next time.
If you follow the recipe exactly, there are 3 grams of carbs and 4 grams of protein per cookie! And they are YUMMY to boot!
Weight loss update
WOO HOO!!!!!
That is the "plan" I'm following, if you will. Dana Carpender has researched LOTS of different low-carb diets and has combined them all in one book. She helps you figure out which one is right for you. The only one not included is the South Beach Diet, and that's just because the SBD book came out after Dana's book. (Although I believe her book has been revised, so perhaps now she talks about it; I'm not sure.) She explains everything in very easy-to-understand terms, and when it comes to nutrition, that helps SO MUCH!
Since I am still nursing S, I am having to be careful with how fast I lose weight. She is 20 months old today, so I'm not concerned so much about my supply as I am about toxins that have been stored in my fat being released into my milk. So I am starting out at a higher level of daily carb intake - somewhere around 60-65ish grams of net carbs per day. (I was eating somewhere around 200+ grams of carbs everyday! YIKES!!!!!) I'm trying to replace many of my carb foods with protein foods, because protein is just sooooo important.Dana makes it very easy with this wonderful, and I do mean WONDERFUL cookbook:
I have tried about 5-6 of the recipes in it, and all of them are wonderful. Protein pancakes that MY KIDS WILL EAT!!! I have been searching for a healthier pizza crust recipe for YEARS, and I have never found one. Until now. I am somewhat of a pizza crust snob, and this one beats anything I've EVER made at home, even the normal white flour, bad for you pizza crust. Absolutely DELICIOUS. Today I plan to try the oatmeal cookie recipe.
If you are low-carbing, you MUST GET THIS BOOK. Honestly I plan to use many of the recipes even after I'm at my goal weight, because they are just so much healthier than my regular recipes. I would love to have my kids eat high protein pancakes instead of the regular ones!
And that pizza crust! Yum!!!Some other of her cookbooks I'm wanting to get:
Dana also has a great website, and ezine, and a blog. You can find out more at www.holdthetoast.com.
Whew!
The past 2 weeks have been so busy! My older 3 have been taking swimming lessons in the afternoon every day for the past 2 weeks. They went in as complete non-swimmers and came out FISH!
L (almost 6) was in a class with 3 other little ones. She was the oldest one of the bunch, and I could really tell too - she was much more comfortable in the water even though she's never had lessons before. She floats great, jumps in fine, and even "streamlines" well.
G (9) and C (almost 8 ) were in a class with 4 others. WOW!!! They both had lessons 3 years ago, which were a big joke. They essentially started their lessons as complete beginners - they could hold their breath and that's it.
Well, I have no idea what all the different strokes are called (I was in a sunroom off the pool area, so I couldn't hear), but they both can swim (really swim!!!) from the shallow end to the deep end. Yesterday they were learning how to take breaths to the side properly as their arms came up. That sort of thing. In TWO WEEKS!
They take lessons at a family from church's house. The dad used to coach swimming at the collegiate level, and the mom used to compete on a national level. They have a pool IN their house. These are some SERIOUS swimmers, and they teach SERIOUS swimming lessons LOL!
The swimming lessons my boys took before (and the lessons I took) were more of the "well we won't drown" variety, but these lessons are of the "training for the Olympics" variety LOL! If we live here for a while and continue lessons, my kids will DEFINITELY be better swimmers than I am (and I had a pool growing up LOL)!
Well this family has a trapeze doo-hickey hanging above their deep end, and on the last day they have the kids hang on tight while people hoist them up. Then the kids let go, and SPLASH!! G got about waist-high out of the water, freaking the whole time. LOL! We had to coax him HEAVILY to LET GO OF THE BAR. LET GO WITH YOUR FINGERS. LOLOLOL. FINALLY he did, and his instructor jumped out to fish him out. He was coughing and gagging...I'm glad he didn't puke in their pool LOL!
C got up high enough to have his feet touching the water. He dropped off and then SWAM TO THE SIDE OF THE POOL!!! I was SO excited!
Can you believe that L got up to the CEILING? We're talking a good 12 feet! Splashed right on down and loved every minute of it. I was sure to tell her later how proud I was that she got up way higher than the BOYS.
They are all so bummed that lessons are over. I wish we had the money to have them take some more lessons this summer, but alas.... It has been tough timewise these past 2 weeks though. We live 30 minutes from their house (LOL we live 30 min. from EVERYTHING here!), and lessons lasted a total of an hour. So in all we were gone about 2-2.5 hours every afternoon. It has been crazy, and of course S hasn't been napping. (Not that she's great at sleeping anyway!) So in a way I'm not so bummed that lessons are over.
Sooooooo lonely tonight.
Dh is out of town.
You know, the usual.
Reason #459,203 we homeschool.
Is it just me, or is there a resemblance?
"Good afternoon. We're gonna have a great jump today. Okay, first crank a hard cutback as you hit the wall. There's a screaming bottom curve, so watch out. Remember: rip it, roll it, and punch it."
Pray for Melissa Snow
Pray also for this sweet lady, Melissa Snow. She has an inoperable brain tumor that was discovered in Dec., about a week or two after their seventh baby and first son. My heart is just breaking for her family!
Update 12/23/06: Things have worsened. Melissa's family is trying to keep her hanging on until Christmas. Please continue to pray for them.
Update 2/28/07: CHECK OUT MELISSA'S CARINGBRIDGE UPDATE FROM TODAY!!!!!
Keep praying for the Schultzes - another update
Jeff has end-stage melanoma. Stefani posts regularly at their Caring Bridge site.
Update 5/18: It appears Jeff is in his last days. Please pray for their family.
Update 5:21: Jeff entered eternity this evening. Please pray for Stefani and her 8 precious children.
Get a FREE G.A. Henty audio book!!!
You can get With Lee in Virginia: A Tale of the American Civil War - for FREE!!! Simply click on that link and follow the instructions on the page. It takes a LOOOOOOONG time to download (it's 155 MB), but hey, it's free! LOL! I'm not sure how long this offer is good for - apparently Homeschool Estore offers free downloads often.
Oprah on Marriage
I saw the show that Stacy Harp refers to here, and I couldn't agree more with Stacy's assertions.
At one point, Oprah said something like, "That's why I could never get married." Um yeah. But it's OK to just live with a guy.
Not only all of that, but Oprah had the audacity to say that to get cold feet was a little whisper (forgive me if I can't remember exactly what she called it, but it was something like that), and that little whisper was god. WHOA. Now, I do believe that sometimes people don't need to be marrying, but to say that ANYTIME you get cold feet, it's god telling you not to get married????
I do agree with the premise that we can't "lose ourselves" when we get married, and I do think that there is WAY too much emphasis placed on the wedding than on preparing for marriage. But Oprah gave the impression that marriage is a prison and the woman needs to "find herself" before she marries or the marriage is doomed. (All this from a person who has never married, mind you.)
Hogwash.
Genesis 2:24 - For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
God ordained marriage, and really, it's not about us anyway. It's all about Him.
Do Your Job Well
I got to talk with a dear, dear friend tonight. We hadn't talked in a LOOOOOONG time. She is engaged, and she mentioned that her fiance' doesn't have a very good opinion of stay-at-home-moms because his ex-wife used to be one, and well, let's just say that if she could have been fired, she would have been. Her kids were in school, she had a housekeeper, they ate out every night, etc. I'm not sure what she actually DID during the day to keep herself occupied! So needless to say, this guy now seems to think that all SAHMs perform their duties as his ex-wife did.
My friend knew that wasn't true, and she proceeded to tell him how she spent her days when she was a SAHM.
I agreed (of course LOL) and told her that that would be like me saying that since some accountants are crooks, that the accountind profession is a bad one.Our conversation got me to thinking though. Ladies, a world is watching us. Even if we don't realize it. Even if it's "just" our husband and our children. How do we perform our job? Are we giving SAHMs a good name? Or are we trashing this noble profession with our laziness? I fully realize that sometimes circumstances get in the way, but IN GENERAL, what will people think about SAHMs when they look at us?
Pizza burgers
I'm in my first week of a Biggest Loser competition. I have 28 lbs. to lose to reach my goal weight. I'm doing somewhat of a modified low-carb plan since I'm nursing and can't lose too much too fast. (Don't want the toxins stored in my fat to be dumped into my milk!) So I'm trying to decrease my carbs (which, I discovered, is a LOT LOT LOT!) and increase my protein. I'm also trying to eat more GOOD carbs.
Today I tried something new, and it was YUMMY!!!!!!!!!!! I got the idea from Dana Carpender (whose books I have REALLY liked a lot!). We grilled hamburgers last night for supper, so dh grilled a few extras since we had lots of hot coals left. Today for lunch I took one of the burgers, spread pizza sauce on it, then covered it with pizza cheese. Popped it in the oven and let it warm up.
YUM YUM YUM!!!!! It really hit the spot and helped with the whole crust-craving thing. The burger is chewy, unlike crumbled ground beef. The chewy burger did a great job of replacing a chewy crust. So tasty!!!
Our challenge this week is a water challenge. I'm supposed to be drinking half my weight in ounces. Amazingly it hasn't been too hard! I am really surprised by that because I really struggle with drinking enough water. But I've been surpassing the amount I'm supposed to drink. Yesterday I drank a whole gallon! I can't really feel a difference. Well, except for having to go potty a lot! LOL!!!
Exercise has been put on hold while my back heals. Tonight it feels absolutely FINE. Woo hoo!!!! I have 2 massages and 3 adjustments scheduled for next week, and we'll have to see about after that. I think I'll start walking on the treadmill in the afternoons while I watch Dr. Phil.
I managed to get down to my ideal weight after my first 3 kiddos, so I know it IS possible. My thyroid went crazy after #4, and I also was on Zoloft for a while, and my weight just hasn't been the same since. It hasn't been TOO terribly bad, but I'd just like to get back down to my normal.
If I happen upon some more yummy recipes, I'll post them!
